DAY 7
Matthew 4:18-22
As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishers. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Jesus may not have acted quite as one might expect a king to act. However, through those he called to be his disciples and the wider community that gathered around him, Jesus remodelled Israel.
It was no coincidence that Jesus’s core group was made up of twelve individuals. They might not have each come from one of the twelve tribes of Israel, but if Jesus’s mission was about Israel, then those who would act as “Elders” (or Apostles) had to number twelve! That the twelve disciples did not represent each of the tribes was significant. The renewal of Israel under Jesus had to break away from the old structures. It was not to be status that would give places of honour. Instead, it was service, the ability to be honest while at times completely clueless, and to trust Jesus entirely.
It was not just the twelve disciples that made up this new Israel. The reforging of who Israel was to be, came from the others who made up the large community of Jesus’s disciples: the women who saw more than some of the men did; the broken who found healing and purpose. Those who were unaccepted being accepted and included.
And over this group of people Jesus ruled, through love not power.
Christ’s is the world in which we move;
Christ’s are the folk we’re summoned to love;
Christ’s is the voice which calls us to care,
and Christ is the one who meets us here.
To the lost Christ shows his face,
to the unloved he gives his embrace,
to those who cry in pain and disgrace,
Christ makes, with his friends, a touching place.
If you would like to download the full series, a pdf booklet is available here